NRL won’t crash Everest party

NRL won’t crash Everest party

The man who pulls the strings for both horse racing and rugby league has declared that their most precious jewels won't sabotage each other in October.

ARLC chairman Peter V'landys has told The Daily Telegraph at an exclusive gathering of Australia's heavy-hitting sporting administrators that he will not stage The Everest on the same day as an NRL final.

After months of a complete sporting shutdown, the business end of the football season is shaping as "Octoberfest" as it prepares to run into the Spring Racing Carnival.

However, V'landys has dismissed the possibility of Australia's richest race The Everest and NRL double-header and believes in giving them their own air.

"Not on the same day," he said. "You could have The Everest on the Saturday and the football on the Sunday.

"We'll work all that out in the next few weeks and we haven't determined where we're going to place The Everest or any of our race meetings at the moment … we'll probably make a decision by early June.

The NRL finals will be held in October, but they won’t clash with The Everest at Royal Randwick. Picture: AAP

"I think there's an opportunity for the sports to work together … (the public) is going to have a glutton of sport come October-November and I think it's an opportunity for all the sports to work as a team and place themselves in a place where we can all share in the crowds and the revenues.

"I'm confident with racing and rugby league in Sydney, we'll come to an arrangement because rugby league shouldn't be on when the Everest is on and the Everest shouldn't be on when the rugby league is on. Commonsense will prevail and we'll work together and make sure we support each other and don't compete against each other."

Meanwhile, V'landys has ruled out the possibility of the NRL referees hijacking the May 28 start of the competition with their industrial action.

The ARLC boss concedes if the referees win at a Fair Work Hearing on Saturday, the NRL will have to abandon plans to restart with one referee, and will be forced to go back to two officials.

However, one way or another, the season will start on schedule. V'landys can't see how the NRL can lose to its referees at the hearing.

Racing NSW CEO and ARLC chairman Peter V’landys is determined to give the NRL finals and The Everest their own space in October. Picture: Jonathan Ng

"There's no risk to the game going ahead. There will be a resolution one way or another in the sense that we have a Fair Work Australia on Saturday where a decision will be made," he said.

"What the referees want is to go back to the two referees, what we want is the one referee and a decision will be made accordingly.

"I'd be very surprised if the Fair Work Commission was to change a regulators' power to make the rules in order to generate its revenues. But I appreciate, I can't pre-empt these decisions."